It's been interesting to watch Croatia's climb. Is there a story that we can tell about what's been driving the climb? Have they been beating top European teams? Have the other top teams (excluding Spain and Germany) all been having stumbles? Does the rolling off of old matches been driving this upward trend? Has it been one or two matches? Any insights would be appreciated!

Btw, if Croatia does have a top 7 ranking when the WC Draw is done in December (as your simulations highly suggest), it will be interesting to see if they get a seed (which I think would be deserved based on the ranking), but somehow I'm suspicious about FIFA giving Croatia a seed... Not sure if suspicion is warranted. Thoughts anyone?

It's their qualifying group. All the teams were respectively ranked, and they're beating them all.

FIFA I don't see why they wouldn't seed Croatia. Even if they were out to rig the event, they could just rig in a France/Portugal/England that didn't get seeded. They'd probably toss England in there, that would have the most neutral appeal to let the rivalry continue.

But honestly, I think they'll just seed whoever's top 7. The big teams, even if unseeded, ought to be able to get out of their groups short of a group of death situation. And groupsof death can occur even with seeded teams. Italy crashed out of the softest looking group last time.

Do they even need to rig anything? It's the World Cup. In Brazil. I predict it will shatter records.

What kind of records do you think will be shattered, Lorric? I personally think we'll see some of the bigger nations struggle again with one or two surprise quarter-finalists e.g. Belgium, Bosnia, Japan.